Youth Reflection: Kishi Bashi’s Music Sparks Curiosity and Compassion
By Olivia Walker, Lab51 student at One Stone
Last month, Friends of Minidoka welcomed acclaimed Japanese American musician Kishi Bashi for three performances in Idaho to commemorate the 2024 Day of Remembrance. Before the performance and screening of his award-winning Omoiyari: A Song Film, at Boise’s Egyptian Theater, Kishi Bashi met and rehearsed with a local string quartet at One Stone’s Lab51, an innovative, student-driven microschool that empowers students to become confident leaders by developing the knowledge and skills needed to thrive right now and in a rapidly changing future. The following reflection is by One Stone student Olivia Walker.
Being a student at One Stone, opportunities like this are not uncommon. As a student whose interests are all over the board, I have utilized this space to test and challenge myself. “Education” has become an individualized word to me, meaning that it looks different from person to person. That’s because at Lab51, I have the tools to learn and explore whatever I am interested in – including music, history, natural sciences, outdoor safety, people, and different ways of living. I love each of these topics because I took opportunities to explore them in as much depth as I found interesting.
When I heard a musician was coming to rehearse at One Stone, I was intrigued. In the days leading up to the rehearsal, I researched the history behind the stories he would tell, to get a better understanding. I’m embarrassed to admit that I had no idea about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. The fact that I had no idea about this part of history, but neither do many Americans, was jarring.
Music is a powerful storytelling vessel that can be overlooked when it comes to history. I believe Kishi Bashi is the perfect example of the significance that words can hold when elevated by sound. Sitting in that room, I not only heard the story he was telling, but I felt it. Often when reading and researching, I feel a disconnect from the past and history has not been a subject of particular interest so far in my education. Of course, I can empathize, but It’s hard to bridge the gap between now and even 50 years into the past. However, Kishi Bashi finds a way to incorporate passion and music, which becomes a link to bind the connection that is often missed.
When passionate people share what they care about, and are dedicated to it, extraordinary things happen. With themes of loss and love apparent in the words that he sings, Kishi Bashi is clearly one of these passionate people. Being in that room while he belted beautiful songs (at first I thought he was using a microphone because he could project his voice so loudly) changed the way I look at musicianship. Being a musician means wielding the ability to shift the emotions and mood of your audience to capture them into a point in time. When history is forgotten, artists like Kishi Bashi can bring it all to the present. Examples of this are his songs “F Delano,” representing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s signing of Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans; “Angeline,” inspired by convict leasing in the Jim Crow era, which has been described as “slavery by another name; “Summer of ‘42,” following a love story in an incarceration camp; and “Theme from Jerome,” about the last WRA incarceration camp to open and first to close.
Kishi Bashi’s powerful display of passion during this rehearsal will stay with me for a long time. All in all, it was more than just a fantastic opportunity to be in the audience, it was an engaging experience that both interested me and sparked a newfound curiosity for history. I hope Kishi Bashi’s work will continue to inspire others, and students like myself, to learn more about the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.
